Saturday, February 16, 2008

Currently Listening to...

Favorite song:

A Maid in Bedlam

Abroad as I was walking one evening in the springI heard a maid in Bedlam who mournfully did singHer chains she rattled on her hands, and thus replieth she"I love my love because I know my love loves me"

Oh cruel were his parents who sent my love to seaAnd cruel was the sailing ship that bore my love from meYet I love his parents since their his, although they've ruined meI love my love because I know my love loves me

Just as she sat there weeping, her love, he came on landThen hearing she was in Bedlam he ran straight out of handHe flew into her snow-white arms, and thus replied he"I love my love because I know my love loves me"

The history behind this song is fascinating:

"Maid in Bedlam" was a drastic reworking of an earlier song in which a black, George Sighous, was in Bedlam for his mad love for an English girl. It's on a single sheet song with music, c 1740, called "The Black's Lamentation", but the tune on the single sheet is nothing like "Gramachree Molly".